Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief stripped of knighthood Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief stripped of knighthood By Douglas Stanglin , USA TODAY Updated Fred Goodwin, the former chief of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has been stripped of his knighthood in the wake of widspread criticism over his role in the bank's near collapse in 2008, the BBC reports. The queen, on the advice of the government, canceled and annulled the title that was bestowed upon Goodwin by the Labor government in 2004. Goodwin, 53, led RBS to disaster with a takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro, paying a high price just as the credit crisis was starting to hit, the Associated Press reports. The British government spent the equivalent of around $70 billion bailing out and nationalizing the bank, which is now 82% owned by taxpayers, the AP says. A report last year by the Financial Services Authority blamed the debacle on bad decisions, rather than dishonesty or any violation of regulations.

Prime Minister David Cameron calls the unusual move the "right decision." In the past, the BBC says, only convicted criminals or people struck off by professional bodies have had knighthoods taken away. Goodwin also stirred public outrage by resigning with $25 million in pension benefits, the AP says. The BBC quotes Goodwin's unofficial biographer, Nick Kochan, as saying he believes the former bank official would receive the news "really quite harshly." "I think he's a man who has enjoyed the status of being a knight," he tells the BBC. PREVIOUS How dishonourable do you have to be to be stripped of an honour? | Politics | The Guardian Honours system How dishonourable do you have to be to be stripped of an honour? As the Cabinet Office reviews Philip Green’s knighthood, we look at former honourables who have had titles revoked Sir Philip Green speaks before parliament’s business select committee on the collapse of BHS.

Photograph: Reuters Monday 25 July 2016 09.50 EDT First published on Monday 25 July 2016 09.50 EDT Close This article is 5 months old With Sir Philip Green facing calls to have his knighthood taken from him after being accused of plundering his former company BHS at the expense of thousands of workers, the Cabinet Office disclosed it was reviewing the accolade. From being a sex offender to bringing a bank to the brink of collapse, there are plenty of precedents for losing honours ranging from CBEs to knighthoods. Here we take a look at ways in which you could become one of the growing number of black sheep in the honours system. Nearly destroy a bank James Crosby , the former HBOS chief executive, was stripped of his knighthood at his own request after a scathing parliamentary report into the bank’s collapse. Crosby was given a knighthood after leaving HBOS in 2006. Similarly, Fred Goodwin lost the knighthood he received for services to banking under the Labour government after guiding the Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of collapse in 2008 .

While honours are usually only removed from those convicted or jailed, the Cabinet Office said the scale of the RBS disaster – necessitating a £45bn bailout from the taxpayer – made the case “exceptional”. Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce each jailed for eight months Read more Lie to protect your husband’s political career Vicky Pryce was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2009 in recognition of her contribution as head of the government economic service. But in March 2013 she and her ex-husband, Chris Huhne , the former Liberal Democrat minister, were both jailed for eight months for swapping speeding penalty points a decade earlier so he could avoid a driving ban, which only emerged when Pryce approached newspapers after Huhne left her for another woman. She was released from prison after two months but after her conviction her name was removed from the Order of the Bath register. Be guilty of nepotism and financial management The “super-head” Jean Else was made a dame in 2001 in recognition of having transformed Whalley Range high school in Manchester.

But in January 2009 she was banned from running a school after the General Teaching Council found her guilty of failing to observe minimum standards in recruiting and promoting staff. Her honour was revoked in 2011 after she was found guilty of misconduct. Be an abusive dictator and tyrant Pinterest The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, was stripped of his honorary knighthood in 2008 over his ‘abuse of human rights’. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP The Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary knighthood in 2008 over his “abuse of human rights” and “abject disregard” for democracy. The Queen approved the annulment of Mugabe’s knighthood, awarded in 1994, on the recommendation of the then foreign secretary, David Miliband . Mugabe was the first foreigner to be stripped of an honorary knighthood since the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the day before his execution by firing squad.

Drive dangerously Naseem Hamed , the former WBA world featherweight champion known as Prince, was jailed in 2006 for 15 months and disqualified from driving for four years after a crash in May 2005 that left another man with fractures to “every major bone in his body”. Hamed was driving at about 90mph on the wrong side of the carriageway as he approached a blind dip on a road on the edge of the Peak District, smashing into the Volkswagen Golf of a painter and decorator, Anthony Burgin. Burgin’s wife, Claire, was also seriously injured. Hamed was stripped of his MBE in January 2007. Spy for the Russians Pinterest Anthony Blunt was stripped of his knighthood in 1979 for being a part of the infamous Cambridge spy ring. Photograph: PA News The art historian Anthony Blunt was a professor of art history at the University of London and surveyor of the Queen’s pictures. What was not known was that in 1964 he had confessed to having been a member of the infamous Cambridge five Soviet spy ring , passing information to Moscow while they worked for MI5 during the second world war.

His secret was closely guarded for many years, but Margaret Thatcher publicly revealed his status in November 1979 and he was immediately stripped of his knighthood. Be a predatory paedophile Rolf Harris was stripped of his CBE by the Queen after being jailed for almost six years for a string of sex attacks on girls as young as seven. Harris, 86, was made a CBE in 2006 by the Queen, a year after painting her portrait to mark her 80th birthday. He had previously been awarded an MBE and an OBE. But his honour was annulled – alongside those awarded in his native Australia – after he was unmasked as a predatory paedophile and found guilty of 12 indecent assaults. Royal Bank of Scotland losses almost double in 2011 | News | Expatica United Kingdom Royal Bank of Scotland losses almost double in 2011 23rd February 2012, 0 comments State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland said Thursday its net losses ballooned to almost £2.0 billion in 2011, hit by the Greek debt crisis, restructuring costs and compensation payments linked to insurance mis-selling.

Losses after tax widened to £1.99 billion (2.35 billion euros, $3.12 billion) from £1.12 billion in 2010, RBS said in a results statement. The group suffered its fourth successive year of steep losses since it was bailed out by the British government at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008. RBS, 82-percent owned by the state, said pre-tax losses soared 92 percent in 2011, while profits at the bank's investment division tumbled 54 percent. The Edinburgh-based lender added that it paid staff a total bonus pot of £785 million, down 43 percent compared with 2010. That included £390 million for its 17,000 investment banking staff, down 58 percent. "After the effect of several large one-off items such as ... compensation costs, Greek sovereign debt impairments, and integration and restructuring costs, the group reported a pre-tax loss of £766 million," the bank said. RBS took an enormous £1.1 billion writedown on the value of its Greek government bonds.

The company has also been hit hard by having to pay compensation of hundreds of millions of pounds to its customers who were mis-sold insurance policies. RBS has slashed tens of thousands of jobs since it was bailed out by the state and has also sought to offload non-core assets as it seeks to return to profitability. Chief executive Stephen Hester told reporters: "Our job is to diffuse the biggest-ever time bomb in banking balance sheets. In this respect, we are making progress." Ahead of the results, Hester bowed to public anger last month and waived his annual bonus of shares worth £963,000 on top of his £1.2 million salary. The large bonus, coming amid government austerity and economic gloom, had sparked outrage among trade union leaders and opposition politicians because RBS has been almost fully nationalised. In January meanwhile, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008. British finance minister George Osborne welcomed Thursday's cut in the bonus pool but stressed that it was in the nation's interest that RBS received the necessary backing to return to health.

"The new management team at RBS are cleaning up the mess after the biggest bank bailout in history ... These results show that they are doing just that," Osborne said. "It's right that bonuses at the investment bank are less than half what they were last year and less than a third of what they were in 2009," he said. "But our main interest should be to get back as much money as possible for taxpayers and we must not let those that want to create an anti-business culture put that at risk." Since 2008, the state has injected a massive £45.5 billion into RBS, which needed saving from the US housing market crash and a disastrous multi-billion-pound takeover of Dutch rival ABN Amro in 2007. "The job of rebuilding the group is far from complete," RBS chairman Philip Hampton said on Thursday. "The need to address the legacy of losses in a number of businesses means that the group is not yet profitable, although in 2011 our core businesses earned a profit of £6 billion," a figure that sent the bank's shares higher.

RBS recently said it would cut 3,500 more jobs over the next three years as the group shrinks its investment banking activities -- bringing to 34,000 the number of posts the bank has slashed since late 2008. Its shares jumped 5.09 percent to finish Thursday at 28.72 pence on London's FTSE 100 index, which closed up 0.36 percent at 5,937.89 points. RBS's results were published one day before another bailed-out lender, Lloyds Banking Group, was due to unveil its annual figures. LBG is 40.2 percent owned by the government. © 2012 AFP RBS collapse: Nobody will be prosecuted over Royal Bank of Scotland collapse | Metro News Nobody will be prosecuted over collapse of RBS Harry Readhead Thursday 12 May 2016 2:04 pm No one involved in the collapse will face prosecution (Picture: Getty Images) No one involved in the £46billion collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland will face prosecution following a five-year inquiry into potential criminality, the Crown Office has said.

RBS worker writes hilarious open letter to ‘school bully’ Russell Brand The Lord Advocate launched an investigation into banking irregularities in Scotland in late 2011 after RBS was bailed out by the taxpayer at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. A Crown Office spokesman said today that there had been a ‘thorough, independent investigation’, the conclusion of which was that ‘there is insufficient evidence in law of criminal conduct.’ ‘This was an extremely complex investigation which included the examination of over 160,000 documents by a team of specialist forensic accountants and banking experts, supervised by the Serious and Organised Crime Division,’ the spokesman said. The bail out came after a period of expansion (Picture: Bloomberg) ‘Following careful examination of all the evidence seen to date, Crown Counsel have decided that there is sufficient evidence in law of criminal conduct either in relation to RBS as an institution or any directors or other senior management involved in the rights issue. ‘If any further evidence comes to light which is relevant to this inquiry it will be considered by the Crown and we reserve the right to make further inquiry, if considered appropriate.’ The bail out of RBS came after a period of expansion at the bank.

Its former chief executive, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of his knighthood. Royal Bank of Scotland loses ballon to 2 billion pounds in 2011 - Business - JamaicaObserver.com Royal Bank of Scotland loses ballon to 2 billion pounds in 2011 Friday, February 24, 2012 Â Â Â Tweet STATE-RESCUED Royal Bank of Scotland said yesterday its net losses ballooned to almost 2.0 billion in 2011, hit by the Greek debt crisis, restructuring costs and compensation payments linked to insurance mis-selling. Losses after tax widened to 1.99 billion (2.35 billion euros, $3.12 billion) from 1.12 billion in 2010, RBS said in a results statement. The group suffered its fourth successive year of steep losses since it was bailed out by the British government at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008. RBS, 82 per cent owned by the state, said pre-tax losses soared 92 per cent in 2011, while profits at the bank's investment division tumbled 54 per cent.

The Edinburgh-based lender added that it paid staff a total bonus pot of 785 million, down 43 percent compared with 2010. That included 390 million for its 17,000 investment banking staff, down 58 percent. "After the effect of several large one-off items such as ... compensation costs, Greek sovereign debt impairments, and integration and restructuring costs, the group reported a pre-tax loss of 766 million," the bank said. RBS took an enormous 1.1 billion writedown on the value of its Greek government bonds. The company has also been hit hard by having to pay compensation of hundreds of millions of pounds to its customers who were mis-sold insurance policies. RBS has slashed tens of thousands of jobs since it was bailed out by the state and has also sought to offload non-core assets as it seeks to return to profitability. Chief executive Stephen Hester told reporters: "Our job is to diffuse the biggest-ever time bomb in banking balance sheets.

In this respect, we are making progress." Ahead of the results, Hester bowed to public anger last month and waived his annual bonus of shares worth 963,000 on top of his 1.2 million salary. The large bonus, coming amid government austerity and economic gloom, had sparked outrage among trade union leaders and opposition politicians because RBS has been almost fully nationalised. In January meanwhile, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008. British finance minister George Osborne welcomed Thursday's cut in the bonus pool but stressed that it was in the nation's interest that RBS received the necessary backing to return to health. "The new management team at RBS are cleaning up the mess after the biggest bank bailout in history ... These results show that they are doing just that," Osborne said. "It's right that bonuses at the investment bank are less than half what they were last year and less than a third of what they were in 2009," he said.

"But our main interest should be to get back as much money as possible for taxpayers and we must not let those that want to create an anti-business culture put that at risk." Since 2008, the state has injected a massive 45.5 billion into RBS, which needed saving from the US housing market crash and a disastrous multi-billion-pound takeover of Dutch rival ABN Amro in 2007. "The job of rebuilding the group is far from complete," RBS chairman Philip Hampton said on Thursday. "The need to address the legacy of losses in a number of businesses means that the group is not yet profitable, although in 2011 our core businesses earned a profit of six billion," a figure that sent the bank's shares higher. RBS recently said it would cut 3,500 more jobs over the next three years as the group shrinks its investment banking activities -- bringing to 34,000 the number of posts the bank has slashed since late 2008.

Its shares jumped 5.09 per cent to finish Thursday at 28.72 pence on London's FTSE 100 index, which closed up 0.36 per cent at 5,937.89 points. RBS's results were published one day before another bailed-out lender, Lloyds Banking Group, was due to unveil its annual figures. LBG is 40.2 percent owned by the government. ADVERTISEMENT These are some of the disgraced public figures who've been stripped of their honours - BT These are some of the disgraced public figures who've been stripped of their honours A list of public figures who have have had their titles stripped as Philip Green faces challenges to his knighthood over the BHS scandal. Share this Print this story As Sir Philip Green faces calls to be stripped of his knighthood after being dubbed the “unacceptable face of capitalism” for plundering his former company BHS, he joins a list of disgraced public figures to be stripped of similar titles.

The Cabinet Office disclosed last week that it was reviewing his honour after a group of MPs wrote to the Honours Forfeiture Committee concerning his actions at the company – at the expense of thousands of workers and pensioners. Although the committee will not consider reviewing the knighthood until the end of any formal reviews or investigations, he could see himself joining… Rolf Harris, March 2015 Rolf Harris (James Arnold/PA) The former children’s entertainer was stripped of his CBE by the Queen – which he received after painting her 80th birthday portrait – after being jailed for almost six years for a string of sex attacks on girls as young as seven. His honour was annulled – alongside those awarded in his native Australia – after he was unmasked as a predatory paedophile and found guilty of 12 indecent assaults.

Vicky Pryce, July 2013 Vicky Pryce (PA) The economist was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2009 in recognition of her contribution as head of the Government economic service, but in March 2013 she and ex-husband Chris Huhne were jailed for eight months for swapping speeding penalty points so he could avoid a driving ban. She was released from prison after two months but, following her conviction, her name was removed from the Order of the Bath register. James Crosby, June 2013 James Crosby (PA) The former HBOS chief executive was stripped of his knighthood at his own request following a scathing parliamentary report into the bank’s collapse. He also promised to give up 30 per cent of his £580,000-a-year pension, saying he was “deeply sorry” for what happened and the “ensuing consequences” for the bailed-out bank’s staff, shareholders and taxpayers.

Fred Goodwin, January 2012 Fred Goodwin (Tony Larkin/PA) Goodwin received his knighthood for services to banking under the Labour government before guiding the Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of collapse in 2008. While honours are usually only removed from those convicted or jailed, the Cabinet Office said the scale of the RBS disaster – necessitating a £45 billion bailout from the taxpayer – made the case “exceptional”. Jean Else, February 2011 Jean Else (David Jones/PA) “Superhead” Jean Else was made a Dame in 2001 in recognition of her transforming performance at Whalley Range High School in Manchester. But in January 2009 she was banned from running a school after the General Teaching Council found her guilty of failing to observe minimum standards in recruiting and promoting staff. Robert Mugabe, 2008 Robert Mugabe (PA) Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary knighthood in 2008 over his “abuse of human rights” and “abject disregard” for democracy.

He was the first foreigner to be stripped of an honorary knighthood since Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the day before his execution by firing squad. “Prince” Naseem Hamed, 2007 Prince Naseem Hamed (PA) The former WBA world featherweight champion had his MBE stripped after he was jailed in 2006 for 15 months and disqualified from driving for four years after a crash in May 2005 that left another man with fractures to “every major bone in his body”. Hamed was driving at around 90mph on the wrong side of the carriageway as he approached a blind dip on a road on the edge of the Peak District, smashing into painter and decorator Anthony Burgin’s Volkswagen Golf. Mr Burgin’s wife Claire was also seriously injured. Anthony Blunt, 1979 Anthony Blunt (PA) The art historian was a Professor of the History of Art at the University of London and Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures.

But what was not known was that in 1964 he had confessed to having been a member of the infamous Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring, passing information to Moscow while they worked for MI5 during the Second World War. Margaret Thatcher publicly revealed his secret status in November 1979 and he was immediately stripped of his knighthood. Share this Royal Bank of Scotland losses almost double in 2011 - Yahoo7 Finance Australia Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:05 PM AEDT - Australia Markets close in 55 mins. Royal Bank of Scotland losses almost double in 2011 AFP – Thu, Feb 23, 2012 6:14 PM AEDT Recommend Print State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland said Thursday its net losses ballooned to almost £2.0 billion in 2011, hit by the Greek debt crisis, restructuring costs and compensation payments linked to insurance mis-selling.

Losses after tax widened to £1.99 billion (2.35 billion euros, $3.12 billion) from £1.12 billion in 2010, RBS said in a results statement. The group suffered its fourth successive year of steep losses since it was bailed out by the British government at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008. RBS, 82-percent owned by the state, said pre-tax losses soared 92 percent in 2011, while profits at the bank's investment division tumbled 54 percent. The Edinburgh-based lender added that it paid staff a total bonus pot of £785 million, down 43 percent compared with 2010. That included £390 million for its 17,000 investment banking staff, down 58 percent. "After the effect of several large one-off items such as ... compensation costs, Greek sovereign debt impairments, and integration and restructuring costs, the group reported a pre-tax loss of £766 million," the bank said. RBS took an enormous £1.1 billion writedown on the value of its Greek government bonds.

The company has also been hit hard by having to pay compensation of hundreds of millions of pounds to its customers who were mis-sold insurance policies. RBS has slashed tens of thousands of jobs since it was bailed out by the state and has also sought to offload non-core assets as it seeks to return to profitability. Chief executive Stephen Hester told reporters: "Our job is to diffuse the biggest-ever time bomb in banking balance sheets. In this respect, we are making progress." Ahead of the results, Hester bowed to public anger last month and waived his annual bonus of shares worth £963,000 on top of his £1.2 million salary. The large bonus, coming amid government austerity and economic gloom, had sparked outrage among trade union leaders and opposition politicians because RBS has been almost fully nationalised. In January meanwhile, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, was stripped of his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008. British finance minister George Osborne welcomed Thursday's cut in the bonus pool but stressed that it was in the nation's interest that RBS received the necessary backing to return to health.

"The new management team at RBS are cleaning up the mess after the biggest bank bailout in history ... These results show that they are doing just that," Osborne said. "It's right that bonuses at the investment bank are less than half what they were last year and less than a third of what they were in 2009," he said. "But our main interest should be to get back as much money as possible for taxpayers and we must not let those that want to create an anti-business culture put that at risk." Since 2008, the state has injected a massive £45.5 billion into RBS, which needed saving from the US housing market crash and a disastrous multi-billion-pound takeover of Dutch rival ABN Amro in 2007. "The job of rebuilding the group is far from complete," RBS chairman Philip Hampton said on Thursday. "The need to address the legacy of losses in a number of businesses means that the group is not yet profitable, although in 2011 our core businesses earned a profit of £6 billion," a figure that sent the bank's shares higher.

RBS recently said it would cut 3,500 more jobs over the next three years as the group shrinks its investment banking activities -- bringing to 34,000 the number of posts the bank has slashed since late 2008. Its shares jumped 5.09 percent to finish Thursday at 28.72 pence on London's FTSE 100 index, which closed up 0.36 percent at 5,937.89 points. RBS's results were published one day before another bailed-out lender, Lloyds Banking Group, was due to unveil its annual figures. LBG is 40.2 percent owned by the government. @y7finance on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook Royal Bank of Scotland - Economics bibliographies - Cite This For Me Cite This For Me Not logged in. Log in or create an account These are the sources and citations used to research Royal Bank of Scotland.

This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Sunday, May 1, 2016 Cleaning up a toxic past at the ‘bad bank’ of RBS 2016 - The Financial Times The job of cleaning up RBS’s bad loans was likened to “defusing the time-bomb” by former chief executive Stephen Hester before his departure in 2013. Yet the process has not been as complicated as some, including Mr Hester, had feared. Mr Bailie talks gleefully of the action his team has taken: “The good news is nothing is really like nuclear weapons.” About £1.6tn of assets have been stripped out of RBS’s bloated balance sheet — more than the value of Italy’s economy — and there is still more to come. - The scale of the undertaking at RBS remains the most ambitious because it emerged from the crisis in a worse state than many of its competitors. “If you go back to 2008 the bank’s balance sheet was bigger than the GDP of the UK,” says Mr Bailie. In-text: (Arnold, 2016) Your Bibliography: Arnold, M. (2016).

Cleaning up a toxic past at the ‘bad bank’ of RBS. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47bCJskzy [Accessed 3 May 2016]. Newspaper EU moves to curb executive pay at bailed-out banks 2013 - Financial Times The European Commission hope the curbs – which also demand the removal of executives at failed banks – will protect against moral hazard and motivate bailed-out banks to pay back taxpayers promptly. “There should be incentives for banks’ managements to undertake far-reaching restructuring in good times and, thereby, minimise the need to recourse to state support,” the guidelines state. The restrictions apply until the end of a bank’s restructuring plan or the repayment of state support. In-text: (Barker, 2013) Your Bibliography: Barker, A. (2013). EU moves to curb executive pay at bailed-out banks. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 Apr. 2016].

Newspaper Economic slowdown eats into RBS trade 2008 - Financial Times Not only is RBS being affected by continued writedowns on its structured credit portfolio but there is evidence that the economic slowdown is starting to feed through into rising bad debts among corporate clients and consumers. In-text: (Croft, 2008) Your Bibliography: Croft, J. (2008). Economic slowdown eats into RBS trade. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 May 2016]. Newspaper Fleming, S. and Smith, A. Big Four keep their grip on company audits 2014 - The Financial Times But directors at large UK companies argue that more frequent tendering will not by itself be enough to allay concerns that they and the big four audit firms are too close. “We rounded up the usual suspects,” says one FTSE 100 executive, referring to its tendering process.

Another is equally straightforward: “For a company of our size and complexity, there are really only four firms that can do it.” Steve Maslin, chairman of the partnership oversight board of Grant Thornton believes a combination of regulatory change and shareholder pressure will lead to “significant change” in the structure of the market. But he says it is “very very early days”. In-text: (Fleming and Smith, 2014) Your Bibliography: Fleming, S. and Smith, A. (2014). Big Four keep their grip on company audits. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz479OZXwzG [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016]. Book Your Bibliography: Fraser, I. (2014). Shredded. Malta: Gutenberg Press. Newspaper Goff, S. and Arnold, M. Five years on and the RBS pain is still far from over 2014 - Financial Times In-text: (Goff and Arnold, 2014) Your Bibliography: Goff, S. and Arnold, M. (2014).

Five years on and the RBS pain is still far from over. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper Goff, S. and Jenkins, P. Commission hears calls for banking reform 2010 - Financial Times "The question we asked everyone was: what is the social and economic function of banking?,” said Mr Davis, a former shadow home secretary, who chaired a series of evidence hearings. “What job is the industry there to do and how should it do it?” Mr Davis said the report would look at issues such as how intrusive regulation should be, the public’s perception of “perverse incentives” for bankers and the importance of an efficient outcome to the vast public investment in banks. In-text: (Goff and Jenkins, 2010) Your Bibliography: Goff, S. and Jenkins, P. (2010). Commission hears calls for banking reform. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Newspaper The danger of a rush of power to the head 2013 - The Financial Times when power goes to the head of driven business leaders, as a new report into behavioural risk by MWM, the executive search consultancy, describes: “Having reached the top of the ladder . . . there is a growing risk that over time the very attributes that have been the foundations for their achievements can turn into destructive tendencies.” The study, based on anonymised interviews with 80 executives, non-executives and board chairs, cites some familiar historical examples of self-destructive bosses, from Enron’s Jeff Skilling to Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland. “It’s hard not to start believing your own PR and concluding that you walk on water,” one CEO told MWM. In-text: (Hill, 2013) Your Bibliography: Hill, A. (2013). The danger of a rush of power to the head. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47bCJskzy [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Newspaper RBS shows governance is a work in progress 2011 - Financial Times So to the exception that proves the rule: RBS, and Sir Tom. In interviews with the Financial Services Authority, directors suggest Sir Fred Goodwin, the bank’s alpha-CEO, was no boardroom bully, but “reliably followed up on points [they] raised” in meetings. Perhaps Sir Fred’s “skill in . . . handling board relationships” gave the chairman a false sense of security that he had the CEO under control. Sir Tom doubtless took comfort that many investors were lauding Sir Fred’s record, particularly as a maker and integrator of deals, to the point of idolatry. They backed RBS’s bid for ABN Amro in 2007 with a 94.5 per cent vote that would have embarrassed a Soviet-era totalitarian. In-text: (Hills, 2011) Your Bibliography: Hills, A. (2011). RBS shows governance is a work in progress. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz3ydO8fJJG [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Newspaper Lasting lessons for smug CEOs and somnolent shareholders 2016 - The Financial Times -asset managers holding "secret summits" to improve long-termism and public company governance. I'm interested to hear if anyone feels the backroom route to collaboration is better than the public one. Perot, of course, was ultimately obliged to go public with his concerns about GM. But does a "silent assassin" approach to poor management, as practised famously by Fidelity's UK fund manager Anthony Bolton, yield better results for all - Many business leaders suffer from the management style issues addressed in Perot's letter and as top dog it is all too easy to become a bully. I have observed the phenomenon as advisor to many companies, and had to fight this tendency in myself - it was hard work to stay open for criticism, and to learn from it, but a team of professionals really knows more and takes better decisions than a single, even extremely brilliant (especially in my own eyes) autocrat. In-text: (Hills, 2016) Your Bibliography: Hills, A. (2016). Lasting lessons for smug CEOs and somnolent shareholders. The Financial Times.

[online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 3 May 2016]. Newspaper Royal Bank of Scotland - Underlying recovery trend seems broadly intact 2011 - Financial Times RBS is by no means out of the woods. Mr Hester is cautious about both the pace of recovery in the UK, RBS’s main market, and the investment banking outlook. Then there is regulatory uncertainty and the possibility of a government-imposed split into utility and investment banking. Little wonder that, for all the recovery signs, and good progress with cost-cutting, disposals and exits, the bank trades at 0.9 times net tangible equity. At that price and with those prospects, RBS neither convinces as a recovery play nor as a long-term hold. In-text: (Jenkins, 2011) Your Bibliography: Jenkins, P. (2011). Royal Bank of Scotland - Underlying recovery trend seems broadly intact. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Newspaper UK government fears new RBS bail-out 2011 - Financial Times “[RBS’s] sovereign exposure is not fundamentally worrying but if there is a broader European drive to recapitalise the banks it’s conceivable they may need more government money,” In-text: (Jenkins, 2011) Your Bibliography: Jenkins, P. (2011). UK government fears new RBS bail-out. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 May 2016]. Newspaper Larsen, P. T. and Croft, J. New RBS chief hits out at 'bull market culture' of predecessors 2008 - The Financial Times The new chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday blamed his predecessors for fostering a "bull market culture" that helped force the group into accepting a £20bn state-backed bail-out. Stephen Hester, who formally takes over as RBS chief executive later this month, said the bank had overextended itself at the wrong time, leaving it vulnerable after the collapse of Lehman Brothers shook confidence in the global financial system.

In-text: (Larsen and Croft, 2008) Your Bibliography: Larsen, P. and Croft, J. (2008). New RBS chief hits out at 'bull market culture' of predecessors. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016]. Book Making it happen 2013 - Simon & Schuster UK - London When RBS collapsed and had to be bailed out by the taxpayer in the financial crisis of October 2008 it played a leading role in tipping Britain into its deepest economic downturn in seven decades. The economy shrank, bank lending froze, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs, living standards are still falling and Britons will be paying higher taxes for decades to pay the clean-up bill. How on earth had a small Scottish bank grown so quickly to become a global financial giant that could do such immense damage when it collapsed? At the centre of the story was Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive known as "Fred the Shred" who terrorised some of his staff and beguiled others.

Not a banker by training, he nonetheless was given control of RBS and set about trying to make it one of the biggest brands in the world. It was said confidently that computerisation and new banking products had made the world safer. Only they hadn't... Based on more than 80 interviews and with access to diaries and papers kept by those at the heart of the meltdown, this is the definitive account of the RBS disaster, a disaster which still casts such a shadow over our economy. In Making It Happen, senior executives, board members, Treasury insiders and regulators reveal how the bank's mania for expansion led it to take enormous risks its leaders didn't understand. From the birth of the Royal Bank in 18th century Scotland, to the manic expansion under Fred Goodwin in the middle of a mad boom and culminating in the epoch-defining collapse, In-text: (Martin, 2013) Your Bibliography: Martin, I. (2013). Making it happen. London: Simon & Schuster UK. Newspaper Parker, G., Jenkins, P. and Jones, C.

Osborne looks at ‘bad bank’ for RBS toxic loans 2013 - Financial Times Although the chancellor ruled out any new public injections of capital in RBS, he has also warned that a good/bad bank split could be disruptive and might require a “complex” valuation of assets. Treasury would carry out a review of the pros and cons with “external professional support” by the autumn and would dump the idea if it was not in the taxpayer’s interest: “We will establish a bad bank if it ... supports the British economy, if it’s in the interest of taxpayers and if it accelerates the return to private ownership.” In-text: (Parker, Jenkins and Jones, 2013) Your Bibliography: Parker, G., Jenkins, P. and Jones, C. (2013). Osborne looks at ‘bad bank’ for RBS toxic loans. Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 Mar. 2016].

Newspaper Fading political will has let banks off the hook 2009 - Financial Times Yet the result of all the bail-outs and mergers is still a higher degree of concentration in banking, which does nothing to mitigate the systemic threat from outfits that are too big or too interconnected to fail. The likes of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs will continue to reap fat profits from opaque over-the-counter trade in credit default swaps and other derivatives. The stronger banks, while preparing to release themselves, from government guarantees, are bent on pursuing business models that are not dramatically different from those they adopted before they foundered. Lord Turner, his counterpart at the Financial Services Authority, has a more nuanced position. In his recent review of the regulatory system, he said: “Serving the financial needs of today’s complex globally interconnected economy ... requires the existence of large complex banking institutions providing financial risk management products which can only be delivered off the platform of extensive market-making activities, which inevitably involve at least some position-taking.” In-text: (Plender, 2009) Your Bibliography: Plender, J. (2009). Fading political will has let banks off the hook. Financial Times.

[online] Available at: #axzz47Q2cKkNk [Accessed 1 May 2016]. Journal Siepel, J. and Nightingale, P. Anglo-Saxon governance: Similarities, difference and outcomes in a financialised world 2014 - Critical Perspectives on Accounting the unitary model in the UK meant that the board of RBS was a party to decisions, even if the structure and functioning of the board was substandard, and the final decision was taken by shareholders. In the RBS case several levels of checks and balances – management, board and regulator – all failed In-text: (Siepel and Nightingale, 2014) Your Bibliography: Siepel, J. and Nightingale, P. (2014). Anglo-Saxon governance: Similarities, difference and outcomes in a financialised world. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 25(1), pp.27-35. Newspaper Boards should learn from Sharapova 2016 - The Financial Times Boards cannot claim that they did not know the rules have been changed.

They are obliged to make sure they are up to date with the latest regulatory or legislative moves. They have to put in place structures which ensure information flows through to them at the right time. Not for them the excuse of nonchalance and inattention to detail of Team Sharapova. Of course, the temptation for boards will be to turn a blind eye to the rules, or to try and interpret them in a way that suits them. UBS and Deutsche Bank hoped that their tax-avoiding bonus scheme of over a decade ago complied with UK tax law. But last week the Supreme Court decided the offshore vehicles that sheltered bankers from income tax and national insurance payments were not legitimate. In-text: (Stern, 2016) Your Bibliography: Stern, S. (2016). Boards should learn from Sharapova. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47bCJskzy [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Newspaper Lose the CEO who wants too much pay 2016 - The Financial Times “A good test is whether the remuneration committee can explain outcomes in a way that ordinary people can understand, which will help business in the political debate and, more importantly, help restore public trust,” he says, adding, “Fairness does not mean automatically keeping remuneration down. It means rewarding real contribution.” It must also mean being prepared to lose a chief executive who is asking for too much. The best chief executives are more concerned about their contribution than their reward. Outsized pay demands are a bad sign. In-text: (Stern, 2016) Your Bibliography: Stern, S. (2016). Lose the CEO who wants too much pay. The Financial Times. [online] Available at: #axzz47bCJskzy [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Newspaper Reviving Royal Bank of Scotland - Scots on the rocks 2010 - The Economist On February 25th RBS reported an underlying £8 billion ($12.5 billion) pre-tax loss for 2009, bringing its total since 2007 to £16 billion. For taxpayers RBS is more than simply a gory story of corporate mutilation. They own 70% of it and their £46 billion investment is underwater. Yet, strangely, the bank's new top brass is quietly confident. According to Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman who was parachuted in last year, “we are not building on sand here. We are building on rock.” That optimism partly reflects the unusual nature of RBS's demise. In-text: (The Economist, 2010) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2010). Reviving Royal Bank of Scotland - Scots on the rocks. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].

Newspaper Royal Bank of Scotland - The ice was thinner than it seemed 2011 - The Economist The FSA report notes just how little information was available to the two banks at the time of their bid: On 29 April ABN AMRO provided two lever arch folders and one CD ROM of information to the consortium and stated that this was the same information that had been provided to Barclays…. The information provided did not satisfy RBS's detailed request. RBS was largely unsuccessful in its attempts to obtain further information. Between 30 April and 3 May, RBS reviewed the information and met ABN AMRO personnel. While these meetings provided a means of obtaining additional clarification and some comfort to RBS, only limited additional information was provided. Despite knowing little about what they were buying, executives at RBS seemed sanguine.

In an instructive interview with FSA investigators, Johnny Cameron, who at the time headed up RBS's global markets business, explained why the bank and its chief executive, Fred Goodwin, were willing to jump blind: Fred had a well-honed approach to acquisitions and it all revolved around those two things—what are the revenue synergies and what are the cost synergies… it's sort of once the boat had been launched and you said these are the cost and revenue synergies, there was a bit of tidying up around the edges, but not a lot to be done. In-text: (The Economist, 2011) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2011). Royal Bank of Scotland - The ice was thinner than it seemed. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper RBS nationalisation - To buy a bank 2012 - The Economist THE Financial Times announced this morning that "cabinet ministers" have been discussing the nationalisation of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Britain's government already owns 82% of the bank after bailing it out in 2008.

Fed up with the lack of lending, "senior government figures" are discussing whether to spend £5 billion buying up the 18% of RBS the state doesn't own. A clash is likely to develop between the hard-nosed Tory chancellor George Osborne, who is opposed to most state expansion, and the long-toothed Liberal business secretary Vince Cable, who is looking for a more radical solution. In a leaked letter to the Prime Minister David Cameron in March, Mr Cable suggests breaking up RBS to create a "British Business Bank with a clean balance sheet and a mandate to expand lending rapidly to sound business". In-text: (The Economist, 2012) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2012). RBS nationalisation - To buy a bank. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper Is a "bad bank" any good? 2013 - The Economist INVESTMENT banking’s trading businesses are a bit like the nuclear power plants of finance. When all is running smoothly, they hum along and throw out fantastic amounts of money. Yet if things go wrong, they go spectacularly wrong.

And winding them down is a long and dangerous process. It requires skilled hands in the control room and a lot of patience, for it is only once the last of their radioactive assets have been moved on that they can safely be switched off. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which once aspired to be among the world’s largest traders of bonds and manufacturers of debt securities before going bust in 2008, is the latest European investment bank to start withdrawing the radioactive fuel rods from its reactors. On November 1st the largely state-owned bank announced plans to create an internal “bad-bank” in which it would park £38 billion ($60 billion) of its riskiest assets. In-text: (The Economist, 2013) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2013). Is a "bad bank" any good?. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].

Newspaper Opposed to usury 2013 - The Economist on November 26th, it emerged that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office was looking into allegations that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) had defrauded its small-business customers by pushing them into bankruptcy in order to grab their assets. The allegations, which surfaced in a dossier compiled by Lawrence Tomlinson, a businessman and government adviser, suggested that RBS had exploited minor breaches of loan agreements or revalued assets to foreclose on loans. The bank has asked a law firm, Clifford Chance, to investigate the claims. This is also an embarrassment for regulators, who rightly insisted that RBS should increase the amount of capital on its balance-sheet and that it should shed some assets. Yet instead of then forcing the bank to cut back on capital-intensive investment banking and bond-trading activities, which in turn would have been quickly refinanced on global markets, they allowed it also to choke the supply of credit to small firms, many of which could not easily find an alternative supply. This is in contrast to firms such as BNP Paribas, which reduced its balance-sheet mainly by shedding international loans while simultaneously lending more in France.

If RBS were a smallish firm, its shabby treatment of small businesses would not matter much. But this badly run behemoth dominates the market. On the eve of the financial crisis its share of outstanding loans to small businesses stood at about 40%. That huge share was one of the reasons the government was so quick to bail it out in the biggest rescue in British history. RBS’s share of the market has since fallen to 33%. But both prudential regulators and competition authorities ought to ask whether it is wise to let a single institution play such a dominant role in such an important part of the economy. In-text: (The Economist, 2013) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2013). Opposed to usury. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper What a disaster 2013 - The Economist Even on the eve of the bank’s collapse, Mr Goodwin simply could not fathom the peril his institution faced.

After asking the government for help, and agreeing to give the state a majority stake in the bank in exchange for an injection of £20 billion ($32 billion), a sum that would later be more than doubled, Mr Goodwin made little effort to express his thanks, instead describing the bail-out as a “drive-by shooting” by the British government. “He is like a little boy who never admits mistakes,” a former member of his management team is quoted as saying. In-text: (The Economist, 2013) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2013). What a disaster. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper British taxpayers lose £1 billion 2015 - The Economist DEPENDING on your point of view, Britain’s taxpayers either made £2 billion or lost £1 billion on August 3rd. The larger figure (equivalent to $3.1 billion) is the amount netted by selling off a 5.4% sliver of the government’s shareholding in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which it bailed out in 2008.

The lower figure is the difference between the 502p per share it paid back then and the 330p it received this week. In-text: (The Economist, 2015) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2015). British taxpayers lose £1 billion. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016]. Newspaper Financial crime - Justice, interrupted 2015 - The Economist More wrongdoing at banks, more swingeing fines, no prosecutions. On May 20th a consortium of American and British government agencies announced settlements with six international banks regarding claims that they had manipulated currency markets. The six—Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and UBS—agreed to pay $5.6 billion in penalties. All but UBS also admitted criminal behaviour, although the significance of that is unclear. In-text: (The Economist, 2015) Your Bibliography: The Economist, (2015). Financial crime - Justice, interrupted. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 Apr. 2016].

Question: Which former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland was stripped of his knighthood, having been blamed for the collapse of the bank?
Answer: FRED GOODWIN